# My impressions after using Claude Code for six months

Published: 2026-08-17
Tags: cli, ai, claude-code

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Last time when I started to write this post, I got carried away. My brain was on verge of explosion because Claude and I had worked together on so many projects and stuff over the last six months.

My first interaction with the harness was in February 2026 when I started adopting it in my daily work and personal projects slightly more than [Codex CLI](/blog/first-few-days-with-codex-cli/). I went from having a large `CLAUDE.md` file in my global configuration to a smaller one that works 99% of the time.

I work on documentation and everything related to it in my day job. I have used Claude Code to help me with my daily tasks, adding/removing small pieces of content in docs, building tools to support my work and help me work faster, building tools to narrow the change of drifts, building personal apps with Expo and React Native, and so on.

The list is endless, but this time I am not going to get carried away while writing this post.

## My first encounter with Claude Code

Before I started using Claude Code, [I was using Codex CLI](/blog/first-few-days-with-codex-cli/). I was quite satisfied with the amount of work Codex models were doing. However, my experience of interacting with an LLM via command-line app started to change slightly when I first used Claude Code for work and then slowly and gradually adopted it for personal use over the course first quarter of 2026.

I remember asking it vague questions, and it was quite chatty about it. Chattier and descriptive than Codex. Initially, it felt like having a _smart_ rubber duck of my own that can do stuff for me and listen to me.

My first big project with Claude Code was to publish my first app [**Last time I**](https://amanhimself.dev/lasttimei/) on Google Play Store and Apple App Store. This was the nail in the coffin that I was looking. Just by telling it what I want to do, it went with me step by step to prepare and submit my app for app review processes on both app stores without making a single mistake. Yes, sometimes a particular settings or a page's information it had was outdated, sharing screenshots on what was in front of me, back and forth, cleared that huddle.

If you have never published your app or went through the process of publishing an app, it can be daunting and overwhelming for the first time. Using Claude to guide you through the process as well as also learn from it about the niche points of publishing an app, the experience becomes less daunting and more learning. And if you want to go extra mile, you can give Claude access to your Android emulator or screenshots to produce decent looking app store assets without having an external skill or putting to much effort. It will generate those assets in the appropriate size (which is what I did with my second app: [**RHT - Reading Habit Tracker**](https://amanhimself.dev/rht/)).

## Quick impressions of using Claude Code

Here are some of my thoughts that I would say are some of the significant Claude Code impressions I have observed:

- I am currently subscribed to Claude Code via their Open Source program which gives access to Max plan.
- I appreciate the verbosity but sometimes it is too much.
- Fable is quite different. Even after using Opus 5, Fable is a bit clever and approaches a problem differently.
- Opus is smart enough most of the time for most complex tasks.
- I need to try Sonnet more.
- Fable consumes a lot of tokens that is true but gets the work done.
- You can build a decent mobile app by orchestrating Claude Code.
- Love the _artifacts_ to visualize options for a task I am working on and how that feature is also integrated in Claude Code. It has been time saver on some of the recent projects I have worked on and I'd like to continue using it more.